Equities Jobs

Equity is another way of describing shares, or what the US tends to call stock. It is the equity holders that own the company and selling equity is one way that a company can choose to raise capital.

Many large companies have their shares listed, which enables them to be traded on a stock exchange like the London Stock Exchange in the UK or the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in the US. However, it is now becoming increasingly common for equities to be traded away from these traditional exchanges, allowing trading to be carried out in a more anonymous manner on what are often referred to as ‘dark pools’.

Where to Find Equities Jobs

Equities jobs can be found throughout the financial industry. The major banks and stockbroking firms on the sell side require equity expertise, but so do the buy side including asset management firms and hedge funds.

On the sell side, equities jobs are focused on working with buy side clients to enable them to buy and sell shares at the right time and price, minimising the purchase price or maximising the selling price. These decisions will be made on the recommendation of the equity research analysts, whose role is to assimilate the mass of data in the market to provide a full and comprehensive insight into underlying trends across the market, within particular sectors and for individual company shares.

Once a decision is made to trade, the equity sales people will liaise with equity traders or market makers who will complete the deal with or on behalf of the client. Many of the trades are carried out automatically using carefully constructed computer programs known as trading algorithms. However human intervention is often required when the trade is more complex or the contract size exceeds standard parameters. And many banks still require individuals to assist in the settlement process after the trades have been executed. This move into a more automated form of trading has paved the way for a new generation of IT focused equities jobs, with high level programmers, as well as the more traditional roles in equity research in high demand.